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Colourful, funny and open-minded — these qualities best describe Cynthia Victor (shawtysin on Instagram), a 25-year-old plus-size Sri Lankan-American content creator who currently lives in New Jersey, United States. Born in Montreal, Canada, Cynthia was only one when her parents migrated to the US where she has lived ever since.

Following a brief stint in college where she studied Human Resources and Labour Studies, Cynthia realised her passion to create social media content to empower women who looked like her — plus size, brown skinned and South Asian.

Cynthia’s parents fled the Tamil genocide in Sri Lanka that began in 1956 to find a new home and a new beginning. Growing up, she experienced an identity crisis because she was isolated from her country’s culture and its history. Migrating to the United States posed another challenge because the country was so multicultural that it only raised more questions for Cynthia about who she truly was.

“I thought I was Indian for such a long time,” Cynthia said. “Where I live, particularly finding out how I can be American as well as equally Sri Lankan has been difficult.”

Despite the identity crisis she experienced, Cynthia never felt alone in her journey of finding her ethnic roots as a Tamil woman. After deciding to take the leap to become a social media celebrity, she came across many individuals who felt the same way she felt about losing connection to her cultural heritage. “Even if they’re not Sri Lankan, they’re still going through the identity crisis of being able to balance their own culture with wherever they live,” Cynthia explained.

Through social media, Cynthia was able to find acceptance for who she was as a Sri Lankan-American. She could easily clear misconceptions about being stereotyped as an Indian or, more broadly, a South Asian, simply for being brown when she was equally a well-spoken Canadian living the American dream in New Jersey.

Content creation cemented Cynthia’s confidence as a plus-size, brown woman. Her love for the creative space allowed her to feel fully liberated. “The way you can just express yourself through clothing or makeup is incredible, and even if you’re a quiet person, you can be very loud in the way you express yourself,” she said.

Behind the scenes, the content creator consults with brands and models part-time. She initially started out by creating makeup tutorials for the sake of entertainment but what she did not see coming was an audience of people who resonated with how she looked. Her videos had an unintended impact on social media users who began engaging with her videos to feel empowered, to feel seen.

“I try to do my best to just advocate for everything that I represent as a person,” Cynthia said. “I am a plus-size creator as well as being a brown woman myself, I try to showcase that in any way and form I can.” As she progressed in the realm of digital media, her following grew and she now uses her platform to create beauty and fashion content that is a mix of western aesthetics and Sri Lankan culture.

Cynthia is an advocate of body positivity, a movement that originated in the 1960s with the Fat Acceptance Movement to acknowledge and accept all body types. Arguments are often made about normalising ‘unhealthy’ body types, especially when a younger demographic engages with such content, however, Cynthia feels that body positivity does not solely equate to being overweight. It is a movement created for every single person who comes in any shape, form and size.

Obesity may be hurting individuals but what Cynthia finds even scarier are Ozempic pills and starvation being recommended as weight loss strategies for children and young adults.

“Body positivity is truly just accepting how you come, what you look like, and feeling happy in your body because so many people from outside cultures are teaching young women, children that they do not look good or they’re not supposed to look this certain way. They’re teaching them to hurt themselves.”

Cynthia is using her social media power to defy societal norms of what is considered beautiful. She is on a quest to encourage people to feel comfortable in their skin, never shy away from their culture and feel visible in a world that makes them feel unseen.

The power of social media

Social media has emerged as a powerful tool to shape public opinion, resist genocidal wars across digital spaces, fight for just causes and enact institutional change that people in positions of power may be slow in implementing. As a content creator, Cynthia finds herself in a business where people are connected online like never before, and have the power to create real-time social change.

“The amount of billions of dollars lost by this institution [Starbucks] is enough to show any politician that these people who are in the communities can overthrow any ruling,” Cynthia said.

This has been evident in how social media impacted sales of top-selling food and beverage brands during Israel’s ongoing war crimes in Gaza, including fast food giant McDonald’s, which took a major blow to its business in the Middle East. The franchise’s global sales were under four per cent in the fourth quarter of 2023, down from 8.8pc in the previous quarter. Starbucks experienced a similar blowback cutting its annual sales prediction because fewer customers visited the coffee giant in the Middle East.

Cynthia is one of many content creators on social media who are using their platforms to voice support for the voiceless, and to redefine beauty standards established by institutions that have historically been biased against plus-sized, dark-skinned people.

All photographs by Rony Anthony